Our History
How Save Guilford College began…
On October 21, 2020, Guilford College’s Chapter of American Association of University Professors (AAUP) held a Zoom Teach-in entitled, “Who will save Guilford College?” Faculty were concerned about revelations of an alarming financial picture accompanied by a proposed plan by then-Interim President Carol Moore to cut as much as a third of the faculty as part of a so-called “program prioritization process.”
Motivated by what they learned at the teach-in, several alumni started the “Save Guilford College” private Facebook group. The group’s membership soon grew to over 3,000 alumni and friends of the college. Over 1,000 people signed the “Keep the Light on at Guilford” letter, which gave voice to a collective desire to preserve the college’s unique Quaker liberal arts mission and identity.
These early efforts became the building blocks of the Save Guilford College movement, which carried on the work of earlier efforts by the Black Alumni of Guilford College, Bonner Scholar alumni, the college’s former Alumni Advisory Boards and other groups. All of these groups share a love of Guilford as a college with the potential to change lives. Our shared conviction that the world needs a school like Guilford now more than ever has motivated us to organize to save the integrity of its unique Quaker liberal arts identity and commitment to diversity and service.
How we were effective…
The news of the impending cuts inspired alumni to launch a multipronged campaign of collecting financial pledges, writing to the college administration and board of trustees, and appealing to local and national media. The efforts of these passionate and committed alumni and other friends of the college persuaded the board of trustees to change course. On January 4, 2021, the board decided to “set aside” the program prioritization recommendations. On January 21, 2020, a designated fund for Save Guilford College was established at the Community Foundation for Greater Greensboro to begin collecting cash donations from our donors. At the same time, Save Guilford College volunteers joined trustees, faculty, staff and students on four “Implementation Teams,” which are currently working to chart out a different path forward for the college.
On February 23, 2021, Interim President Moore resigned, and the board of trustees named Jim Hood ‘79, a beloved faculty member and multi-generational Guilfordian, as the new Interim President. As a result of all of these developments and an increase in positive media attention, the college’s fundraising began to take off, and the Guilford Forward Fund has consistently surpassed its targets.
Where we are now…
In the spring of 2021, the leadership team of Save Guilford College paused to reflect on our past accomplishments as well as our continued purpose for this next phase of the college’s history. We conducted a stakeholder survey, through which forty-eight current faculty, students, and staff communicated their hopes for how we might focus our advocacy and volunteer efforts going forward. We held meetings with Interim President Jim Hood to understand how we could best support positive developments at the college under his leadership. We took stock of our fundraising progress and our capacity for continued volunteer work for the college. And we continued to listen to the concerns of alumni and donors to our Save Guilford College fund.
We understand that deep concerns remain about the past, present, and future of the college. We remain committed to continuing to support the college and helping it to make the most of this groundswell of positive energy focused on promoting Guilford’s uniquely transformative, Quaker-inspired liberal arts education We do so by seeking to embody the creative problem-solving, call to service, and ethical leadership that we all learned at Guilford.